Life has started returning to normal in secluded barangays in Bayang town in Lanao del Sur following last week’s reconciliation of two feuding Maranaw groups whose deadly firefights in recent months dislocated no fewer than 5,000 innocent villagers.

Leaders of the two adversarial clans signed in Marawi City on October 31 a peace covenant that ended their deadly “rido” which claimed more than 20 lives from both sides and forced thousands to flee their villages in the affected barangays.

The term “rido” means clan war in the Maranaw dialect.

Leaders of the Ukra and Macacua groups of Barangay Linao in Bayang town signed a truce and swore over the Qur’an to live in peace together before Vice Gov. Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr.

The symbolic rite was witnessed by officials of the Lanao del Sur provincial police, the Army’s 103rd Brigade, and representatives of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman.

The two clans agreed to reconcile through the intercession of Lucman, Adiong, and Hataman.

The rival Ukra and Macacua groups last fought in Barangay Linao in Bayang town, located in the first district of Lanao del Sur, during the recent Islamic Ramadhan fasting season.

Thirteen people were killed and 18 houses were burned as the two groups figured in gunbattles.

Lucman, who is ARMM’s concurrent social welfare secretary, said the last encounter between the two groups caused the dislocation of no fewer than 5,000 Maranaw villagers.

“The two clans agreed to reconcile after realizing that their `rido’ can only worsen the underdevelopment in their communities,” Lucman said.

Lucman said local officials in Bayang and surrounding towns, and Col. Glenn Macasero of the Army’s 103rd Brigade, helped convince both sides to agree to an amicable settlement of the clan war, sparked by political and territorial disputes.

Lanao del Sur accounts for most number of still unresolved rido, some of them decades-old, in the autonomous region.

Lucman said he is grateful to the support of local Muslim clerics and officials of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for helping resolve the conflict between the Uka and Macacua groups.